EZ Street runner-up Dustin Mewbourne, from Town Creek, AL,
said Robby Erwin simply had him covered in the horsepower department, but added, “it was a good, clean race. He just beat me.”
In EZ Street, with engine builder Jason Motes in his corner, Erwin qualified his ’88 Mustang second of 17 entries, with Nick Yarber from Meadowview, VA, nailing down the top starting spot with a 5.242-seconds pass in his ’95 Cobra.
After a long string of bye runs in the first round of eliminations, Erwin took out Donnie Key in round two, then defeated Walter Wilhelm and number-three qualifier Shane Crowden in the semis. Meanwhile, fourth-place qualifier Dustin Mewbourne completed his march to the final by eliminating Matt Herring, Heath Bell, and Yarber with his 429 small-block Chevy-powered ’89 ‘Stang.
With clouds of nitrous wafting away after Mewbourne (far lane) and Robby Erwin purged their systems, the EZ finalists prepared to do battle. Erwin, from Lithonia, GA, picked up the $2,500 winner’s share while $1,000 went to Mewbourne.
It was all Erwin in the final, though, as he powered through to the win in 5.177 seconds. Still, he said he was “kind of worried” before the final due to the oildown in the left lane. “That’s where we’d been running all day long, it’d been working for us,” he said. “The car was working good considering the first pass on Saturday we stood it up on the bumper and set it down kind of hard and damaged some parts on the front end, bent the struts. So we were kind of crippled then. So we have to thank UPR for their help. They provide us with suspension parts and we sure needed them here.”
After 35 drivers made qualifying attempts in the 5.30 index class, Jonathan Hucks sat atop the list with a perfect 5.300, but it was local racer James Lowe in an early-model Camaro who advanced from the 13th starting spot to take the final-round win over number-two qualifier David Goodson.
